The Defence High Command was the principal staff body of the Spanish Armed Forces during the Francoist regime and the Spanish transition to democracy. It operated between 1939 and 1980, and was in charge of coordination between the staffs of the three branches of the Armed Forces.

The Board of Joint Chiefs of Staff was the highest joint military command body of the Spanish Armed Forces that operated between 1977 and 2005. The Board, subject to the political dependence of the Prime Minister, constituted the highest collegiate body of the chain of military command of Army, the Navy and the Air Force. The Board consisted of a president, selected from among lieutenant generals or admirals of the three branches of the Armed Forces, their chiefs of staff and a secretary. The president had to belong to the Group of Arms Command or Group "A" and was also chief of the Defence High Command, until the dissolution of this body in 1980. The Board also had a General Headquarters, created in 1980 as a result of the dissolution of the Defence High Command, where the organs of aid to the command were integrated. Of the General Headquarters of the JUJEM they depended:The General Technical Secretariat of the General Headquarters. The Joint Staff of the Board, constituted in a balanced way by members of each of the three branches of the Armed Forces. The command of the Board fell to a divisional general or vice admiral of the same scale and group as the members of the Board, at the proposal of the same. The Higher Center for National Defence Studies. The Command of the General Headquarters. Legal Service.